Steam Locos

Steam Locos

24 April 2020

I ordered Accucraft live steam and radio controlled Yeo and Taw from TrackShack. They were delivered in July 2018. My concern over their ability to climb my gradients with four Accucraft L&B coaches were put to rest and I was pleased with their performance. One of the safety valves was not properly set up but that was easily rectified when I worked out what to do. There was also a problem with the bushes falling out of the pony trucks when they got hot. Accucraft developed replacement bushes after a couple of months.

When the locos were fired up a wet oily mess erupted from the chimney. This settled down after a few minutes. However I read recently that this problem could be resolved with the Summerlands Chuffer. I had seen somewhere that the chuffers were not really needed for these locos but I ordered an SCAC26 to find out. It arrived within a few days and I fitted it to Yeo. It works a treat. No oily mess out of the chimney, more smoke and louder chuff. I was so pleased I ordered one for Taw and it arrived today. I haven't been very successful with videos to far so here is the state of Yeo after several steamings since fitting the chuffer.

This is Taw after steaming today before fitting the chuffer.

25 April 2020 - Taw with Chuffer

I cleaned Taw today and fitted the chuffer. This is the result after steaming, no mess. I am very happy with that.